Grabbity and Sir Izacat Mewton came to live with us in August last year, at about 10 weeks old. They are siblings and incredibly affectionate. I don’t remember the last time I had two cats that were so keen on snuggling and sitting on my lap and being near me. Utterly adorable.
Whilst we have a fair amount of space here, Grabbity and Mewton are indoors cats. I asked my Dad to make us a cat wheel so that they can burn off a little energy – energy that they would otherwise burn off at 2am by jumping up and down on our heads. This is a prototype, made of steel, hardened woven kevlar and, yes, duct tape.
We picked up the wheel in November, unpacked it and pretty much left the kittens to just get used to it being around. They didn’t seem overly bothered by its presence, so we tried to introduce them to the idea of running on it using the age old tactic of bribery and corruption:
Our attempts met with a modicum of success: Grabbity in particular enjoys running on it, although sometimes she does so with just her front legs!
As with all prototypes, though, we found a few bugs so it’s currently undergoing some improvements. We are also planning a second prototype that will be larger, wider, have a solid see-through back and a larger bearing to prevent vertical play in the axel. Hopefully we should get that one done by spring. I shall, of course, report back on progress.
Given how much they prefer it when the wheel has a bit of friction in it, putting a dynamo on and hooking it up to a battery wouldn’t be a bad idea… although not sure that they could even power a lightbulb yet. ;)
I admire your perseverance in getting kittens to generate electricity (that *is* the ultimate goal, yes?). But you may have your work cut out…